Ghost catching?

 Boss Lu, who was enjoying a foot bath, put her wet and red feet on the rims of the basin. She inhaled deeply because of the relaxing sensation.

 “What ghost hunting?”

 Luo Duoduo hugged her pillow in fear.

 “What are you talking about? We are police cadets. We should believe in nothing but the insignia on our caps, not ghosts or deities!”

 The “school slut” was also influenced by the school’s ambiance after a few days of training. She now unconsciously spoke just like its students.

 Sesame Oil came in sneakily and closed the door carefully.

 To increase the fear factor, she deliberately turned off the lights. In the dim, gloomy room, accompanied by the splashing sounds made by Boss Lu, Sesame Oil lowered her voice to imitate a storyteller and began speaking dramatically, “The legend goes ‘the new ghost cries foul as the old ghost howls. The haunting begins whenever it rains. We were saying this in the last round…”

 The deliberately lowered voice, along with the eerie pitter-patter of the rain hitting on the window panes, made Luo Duoduo shiver.

 It had rained that evening, and the tapping sounds caused a sense of fear in their hearts. Boss Lu took the sock that she had just removed and hurled it at her. “Can’t you speak properly!”

 Luo Duoduo pinched her nose and removed the sock from her shoulder. “Boss, you hit an innocent…”

 Qianmo was distracted from her meditation by the noise, so she gave up and listened to what Sesame Oil had to say.

 “Alright, you killjoys. I’ll get to the point. Our neighbors told me that someone saw a black shadow flying out from our Panda House at midnight. What’s more, that shadow was full of vengeance. How scary!”

 “You have read too many novels.” Qianmo laughed. She must have read plenty of web novels to even use the term “how scary”.

 “No, Fourth. Someone really saw it!”

 Sesame Oil had been calling Qianmo Fourth all this while.

 Before Qianmo came, they ranked themselves by how fast they could fold their blankets—Boss Lu; Sesame Oil was Second; and Duoduo was Third. Although Qianmo was the fastest, she had also arrived at the last, so she was Fourth.

 “What did they see? Ghost? Did they also sing the school song for her?” Qianmo didn’t believe even a single word.

 Boss Lu finally managed to soak both her feet into the basin. She sighed, nodded, and agreed with Qianmo.

 “Did they recite our school motto too? With our police academy’s righteous atmosphere, what kind of evil will dare to come here?”

 Luo Duoduo wasn’t going to be outshone by others, so she decided to speak up too.

 “Yes. We are the cradle of the people’s protectors. We are not even afraid of criminals, why would we—Mommy!”

 Sesame Oil quickly switched on the light before Luo Duoduo could finish speaking. Luo Duoduo screamed and backed off when she saw a twisted face right in front of her.

 Sesame Oil put down her hands. It was her who had made the face.

 “Ain’t you irritating!” Luo Duoduo punched her.

 Sesame Oil laughed. Then she said earnestly, “I am not joking with you. Someone really saw a shadow. Apparently, the seniors are talking about forming a ghost hunting squad and selecting a few recruits from our batch.”

 Ghost catching squad? Qianmo frowned.

 Looked like it was real. However, she didn’t pay much heed to this superstitious stuff. Could it be a courage test that the academy had set up?

 They were not telling the students in advance, so they could test them?

 “Surely, they won’t pick us?” Luo Duoduo’s reaction was to outright reject.

 She had come here to study to be a police officer. She could catch the bad guys, sure, but ghosts were too scary for her. Wasn’t that the job for the priests?

 “So exciting. I am interested in getting involved.” Boss Lu felt energetic after hearing that.

 It was no fun to do these boring training sessions every single day!

 “I want to go and see it too. Why don’t we all volunteer together? I heard if a recruit volunteers, she doesn’t have to get up in the morning to run laps. How good is that!” Sesame Oil’s legs were cramping after all the jogging these few days. She wanted so badly to sleep in.

 Luo Duoduo couldn’t stand her, though. “This is the best you can do? You’d rather take part in such a scary exercise because you do not want to run laps?”

 “How scary can it be? There are no ghosts in this world. Hahaha. We will be going to admire the night scenery in the mountain for free, and we don’t even have to wake up early. What a good bargain. Do you want to go, Fourth?”

 “I’m not interested.” Qianmo believed it was either the academy’s courage test or a game arranged by the students.

 It could be someone sleepwalking too. She would rather sleep in the dormitory.

 Sesame Oil liked to follow Qianmo around ever since she got back at the instructor. She went over to sit on Qianmo’s bed and shook her arm after she saw her lack of interest.

 “Fourth, let’s go. Four… th…”

 The sound gave Qianmo a headache.

 “Can you not call me Fourth, please?”

 The people in the north seldom called someone like this. It just sounded weird.

 Goddess Mo had always been No.1 her entire life. Why should she be at the bottom here? She strongly resisted it.

 “How about we rearrange again? Hehe. Let’s do it according to this ghost-catching exercise’s result?” Sesame Oil thought she was a genius to come up with that idea.

 “How shall we rank?” Boss Lu had enough being the boss. Being a boss was busy. She was a lazy person and only liked to play.

 Qianmo didn’t want to be the last, so she sat up too.

 “Let’s go volunteer for ghost catching. Whoever stays the longest in the mountains shall be the boss. We rank ourselves according to our courage.”

 Boss Lu nodded. This would work.

 Qianmo did her calculations too. Sleeping didn’t seem to be so enticing when compared to getting rid of the “Fourth” ranking.

 Only Luo Duoduo was unwilling. She was happy being the Third. She wasn’t as busy as the boss and was still able to lord over Chen Qianmo. However, since everyone said that they were going, she couldn’t bring herself to say no.

 In the end, they all agreed, and Sesame Oil went to register their names at the student council. She swiftly returned with the news.

 “The student council president was delighted at our proactiveness. They will be waiting for us to return with the good news!” Sesame Oil was still feeling excited when she entered.

She had just shaken the hand of the student council’s president, and the vice-president even nodded at her. The two handsome guys!

 The other girls were discussing what to do on the mountain. Only Qianmo discovered something unusual from the details.

 “Wait a minute, you were saying… they will be waiting for us to come back here? So, what will they be doing?”

 Sesame Oil nodded profusely. Yup. The president has a pair of smiling eyes. He’s so handsome!

 A healthy sunshine boy!

 “There were other dormitories fighting for this chance. But the president looked at me immediately when I said our dormitory room’s name. Oh yes, Fourth, do you know the president? He asked if we have a Goddess Mo in our room?”

 When did Fourth become a Goddess?

 Qianmo immediately had a bad premonition…

 “What’s the president’s name?”

 “Sha Muyu. He is the best student of the second year Investigation Major and the runner-up of current year academy’s martial arts competition.”